I started blogging, quite honestly, because there were things I wanted to say that seemed to be well-received in this particular subset of consumers of this medium. I started commenting at the Dean blog because I got pissed off at the easy equivalence people made between “shitty Washington journalists and Nedra Pickler” and “journalists in general” which at the time was an occupation I considered myself to hold. Don’t rag on my people, bitches. Unfortunately, nobody at the Dean house wanted to hear it, because by the time I started commenting they were deep into paranoia-ville already, and this was before the Scream thing.
So on over to Atrios where I found a slightly friendlier reception. And discovered a great conversation. And wanted to contribute to it, felt the things I knew something about — political message, journalism and its beginnings and the methods by which it is made — would add to that conversation. I wanted to stand up and yell, “Teacher! Teacher! Pick me!” I’m an attention whore; this suits that well. Plus the blogs were tragically short of ferrets. And Starbuck.
And as with everything I do it became something I care passionately about, and I’m immensely proud of the work we do here on First Draft, especially the recent NOLA trip. This isn’t a huge giant blog with zillions of readers; getting half a dozen people together based on it was a pretty major thing, and that people believe in what this place has been saying enough to actually move their feet is immensely moving to me. We’ve all found structures that let us support and care for each other, and talk, and hash things out, and make things better, even if it’s a chance to chip in ten bucks to a good cause, or a chance to rip some drywall down.
Why do I blog now? Because there are stories I want to tell. Questions I want to ask. People I want to get to know. I want to reach through the Internet and get at everything. More information, more discussion, more cat macros, more of it. More more more more more.
A.
ps. I found Matt Stoller condescending in his post. There is, in fact, a reasonable conversation to be had about whether a consensus develops among like-minded blogs that results in some patterns of linking but not others, and while that conversation is so metaboring it makes me want to rip my own head off and eat it, that doesn’t mean it always has to be dismissed as “whining.” Plus, people don’t have “pet” issues, they have things they care about. It only looks like a pet issue if it’s not yours, and maybe he didn’t mean it that way but it comes off like trivializing others’ activism, which I can’t imagine is productive.